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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Alyson Rosenthal, Chief Program Officer of Westside Campaign Against Hunger
6:35:49
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Alyson Rosenthal, Chief Program Officer of Westside Campaign Against Hunger, testified about the increasing food insecurity in New York City and the need for more support to improve nutrition security. She highlighted the organization's efforts in providing fresh produce and direct benefit enrollments to New Yorkers in need.
- WSCA provided over 5 million pounds of food to over 10,000 NYC customers last year, including 3 million pounds of fresh produce.
- Food insecurity in New York has increased from 1 in 10 to 1 in 8 households, coupled with a 25% rise in food inflation since 2019.
- Rosenthal requested a $100 million allocation for the Community Food Connections program to be baselined in the city's budget.
Alyson Rosenthal
6:35:49
Hi.
6:35:49
Thank you to the health committee chair Lynn Schulman for holding today's budget hearing and for the opportunity to submit this testimony.
6:35:57
My name is Allison Rosenthal.
6:35:59
I'm a chief program officer and registered dietitian at the Westside Campaign Against Hunger.
6:36:04
We're an anti hunger organization that for forty six years has been focused on providing access to healthy fresh produce and direct benefit enrollments for New Yorkers in need.
6:36:14
Last year alone, WSCA or the Westside Campaign Against Hunger provided over 5,000,000 pounds of food to over a 10,000 New York New York City customers which included the distribution of over 3,000,000 pounds of fresh produce, over 50% of all the food that we give out.
6:36:32
Hunger continues to grow in our city, our state, and our country.
6:36:36
This year the USDA ERS report released that one in eight New York households are experiencing food insecurity.
6:36:43
This is an increase from one in ten in the year in the year prior.
6:36:47
In conjunction with the dramatic 25% rise in food inflation from 02/2019, the pressure on direct providers to meet these needs is immense.
6:36:57
Not only as it is is it not only is it more expensive for families to shop for groceries at the store, but it's also more expensive more expensive for pantries like ours to stock our shelves with healthy and nutritious food.
6:37:09
The need is growing and we need more direct support to improve the nutrition security of our communities.
6:37:15
Food insecurity is widely recognized as a social determinant of health and has an important impact on health outcomes and health care costs.
6:37:23
This year with the current federal policy environment, more families will become food and nutrition insecure.
6:37:29
Health inequities will increase with communities that are already bearing a disproportionate burden of chronic disease and they'll be forced to skip meals or consume lower cost nutritionally poor foods, further increasing the incidence of diet related diseases like diabetes and heart disease.
6:37:46
The community food connection program has been a significant source of food funding for WSCA.
6:37:52
We ask that in this year's budget that the city allocates a 10 a hundred million dollars for the community food connections program and that be baselined into the budget.
6:38:05
Thank you.
6:38:06
Thank you.